F15 CRASHES IN SEA OF FLAMBOROUGH HEAD YORKSHIRE

[Gil Boyd]

Sad news and very unusual as its a very rare occurrence here in the UK, that a USAF F15 which I presume is from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk has crashed into the sea off Flambrough Head, in Yorkshire just south of Scarborough.
Its a beautiful day here today, blue skies and unlimted visibility.

Just hope the pilot ejected safley or landed it on a smooth sea.
The aircraft was seen circling around before the crash on a flight tracker website, so probably struck a sea bird which is common.

UPDATE

The US Air Force today confirmed the US Air Force F-15C Eagle had crashed about 9.40am today in the North Sea.

In a statement, they said: "The aircraft was from the 48th Fighter Wing, RAF Leakenheath, United Kingdom.

"At the time of the accident, the aircraft was on a routine training mission with one pilot on board.

"The cause of the crash as well as the status of the pilot are unknown at this time and UK Search and Rescue have been called to support."

The east Yorkshire and Bridlington coastguard has confirmed a major operation is underway.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Gil Boyd]

This trace of the F15C before it crashes was during the Mayday call, so he clearly had a problem, which looks hydraulic on ailerons!

[GeeRam]

Hope the pilot banged out and theyve picked him up.

In the old days of RAF SAR ops, the nearest SAR helo would be engines running within minutes of the pilot declaring an emergency and was going to bang out, if he had time to do that.
Not sure how the comms gets routed through USAF, or UK mil ATC, and with no RAF SAR anymore, and all civvie Coastguard, how much of a delay that all introduces?

Even at this time of year, the North Sea is bloody cold, even with all the lifepreserver stuff they have.

[Gil Boyd]

See that callsign NATO06 circling above, probably an AWACS from RAF Waddington. See his mates QID 256/257 and 258 stuck around with him before the crash. Still no sign of the pilot I'm afraid!

[GeeRam]

See that callsign NATO06 circling above, probably an AWACS from RAF Waddington.

NATO06 is one of the NATO E3's on standing patrol, as LX code not a RAF E3.

Not a good sign they haven't picked the pilot up yet.

A lot of Lightnings are lying in bits on the sea bed in that area, and the pilots if they banged out they were using picked up within 10-15 mins by a RAF SAR back in those days....

[mrclark303]

Not looking good then Gil, no personal locator emergency beacon, would tragically mean he went in with the F15.

We can but hope and pray he made it out...

[Ovidio]

Let's hope for the best!!!

[Gil Boyd]

Bit of useless information this.................as a past Police Diver, we were taught in Cambridgeshire to recover downed pilots from jet aircraft operatiing in the County.

Back then, RAF Wyton had Canberras/Nimrods etc and USAF Alconbury had F4 Phantoms and F5's operating from there, also a host of others operating from RAF Lakenheath and Mildenhall with various fighter jets includingt he F15, so we were trained to get the pilots out of their seats on simulators with a fully charged and operating seat under water in nil visibility where they hadn't banged out for whatever reason as the County was full of deep open water pits, rivers and reservoirs.

We went on several Martin Baker and other courses to achieve this safely.

The Royal Navy Clearance divers at the time didn't have the training to do this which was ironic, because when the Freedom of Free Enterprise ferry tipped over at Zeebrugge a few years later, we were on the RAF airfield with an RAF Sea King with all our kit waiting for the go to assist the dutch with underwater rescues of passengers.

Ironically, the British Government cancelled us, who were trained in search and recovery of dead bodies and the Royal Navy Clearance Divers went instead. To this day never understood that decision!!
Later we learnt many had PTSD following harrowing tales of recovering bodies underwater.

That was our bread and butter job and sadly we became climatised to it, as our job was really a forensic underwater recovery and examination as the Police. I had when I retired recovered with a 5 man team operating in this County 342 bodies underwater from every disaster you can imagine.
I hope he banged out in this case and hope he's still not in his seat for whatever reason!

[GeeRam]

Ironically, the British Government cancelled us, who were trained in search and recovery of dead bodies and the Royal Navy Clearance Divers went instead. To this day never understood that decision!!
Later we learnt many had PTSD following harrowing tales of recovering bodies underwater.

Who understands any decision made by Govt....given they are all made by people with very little understanding of the issues at hand......

[GeeRam]

Not looking good.

Vis at sea and low level is very poor in search area from weather reports and sea temp is 9C today.